The Calgani
by Livabelle
Summary: A war between the angeli of heaven and of earth pulls Arabella Walker into a dangerous world of ferral angels, demons from the underworld and the "seventh wave". What will it take for her to accept the Calgani, and her part in this battle to the end?


**CHAPTER 1**

"Arabella!"

The shout finally pierced through the haze in my mind.

"Hmm. What?" I replied. Jessie just turned and glared at me, I swear she would have slapped me.

"Did you hear I word I just said?" she growled. Temper had never been one of my little sister's strong points, but honestly, mine was so much worse.

"Erm, if I answer that honestly, will you slap me?" I joked. Jessie rolled her eyes.

"C'mon Jess, don't be mad! I didn't sleep at all last night." That wasn't a lie either.

"You usually sleep so well though, it's weird, I've been sleeping fine." She mused to herself.

"It's this place, it's getting to me." I sighed, and poured out a small scoop of sugar onto the table, and started playing with it, pushing it into shapes. It was a bad habit of mine. "I wish mom and dad would hurry up and get back from the lecture hall already, it's been over-" I stopped myself mid-sentence and my mouth fell open. Jessie picked up on this instantly.

"What is it?" She demanded. I said nothing, just kept gaping. Jess wasn't a very patient person, and it showed when she wanted to know something.

"WHAT IS IT!" She tried again

"Omg, hot boy by the water fountain." I just managed to get the syllables to come off my tongue. To be honest, hot didn't even begin to cover it. Jessie glanced at the fountain, then turned and looked at me, looked back at the fountain then stared at me.

"Belle, there's no one standing at the fountain." She was looking quite petrified; I had a bit of a history with hallucinations. I had been in a car crash the year before, and had been suffering with them ever since. I turned back to the fountain and the boy was still standing there. He was wearing all white. A loose shirt with the collar undone and white pants. They looked like they were from a different century. His hair was ash blonde, and had a slightly wild look about it. He looked a bit like a hallucination. He was looking straight at me, and our eyes met for a moment, before he turned and began to stride away.

I turned to look at Jess again, who was still staring at me with eyes wide open. I glimpsed back at the fountain for a last look at the mystery boy, but he was nowhere to be seen. I was brought back to reality when I felt a gentle hand on my arm. I turned my head to look at Jess, and grinned.

"Sorry, my mistake. I swear I'm going mad from sleep deprivation." She sighed and I knew my lie had done the trick. She no longer thought I was mad, well, for now. I couldn't say the same for myself.

"C'mon, let's go shopping. I mean, we're in Italy for god's sake, and we're just sitting around moping about our parents giving lectures!" I could tell that Jess agreed with me, she loved shopping. I didn't to say the least, but I didn't love sitting around drinking iced lemonade either. I left a five euro bill on the painted green table, took a last swig of my lemonade and stood up. Jessie followed instantly, with a beaming smile. I grabbed my bag, which was sitting by my feet, and trotted off to keep up with Jess, who was dragging me down the narrow cobbled street.

"C'mon!" she yelled at me as I tried to get her to stop at some of the shops, but I could tell she was making a beeline straight for the fashion part of the street. I went along with it for a while, but I put my foot down when I saw a particular shop. It was tiny, old and dirty, one of the shops that your eyes seem to pass over without giving any thought to. Jess sighed and sprinted ahead towards the colourful clothes boutiques, but there was something drawing me to the store. I shuffled over to the window, and peaked in. I could hardly see through the window, it was far too grimy and murky. I walked over to and through the little door, a little chime tinkling as I opened it. I gasped when she saw the interior, it was beautiful and the outside gave nothing away. The wallpaper was a deep crimson, with swirls and Gold ceilings with beautiful gold light fittings at equal intervals along the wall. The room was lit with yellowy gold light which was dim, and threw shadows against the wall.

"May I help you, signora?"

I hadn't noticed, but while I was admiring the room an old man had shuffled in from the back. He had snow white hair; it was long and braided down his back. His back was stooped from age, but when I looked into his eyes, they looked like a child's.

"No, I'm just looking thanks." I smiled, and turned to look at a shelf just beside the door. I saw the most beautiful silver broach. It was round, flat and about the size of an apple. There were several of them on the shelf, and they all had different carvings and shapes on them. There was one that I was particularly fond of; its whole façade was carved as a rose.

I turned my head over my shoulder, and the old man was looking at me inquisitively. I turned back around and looked at the price of the silver disk. I gasped and came very close to dropping it. There's NO way I could afford that. I gently laid it back down on the shelf. I turned around and looked for something slightly more affordable, and found it in the shape of a book. It was titled "Miti de Venicia"I had no clue what it meant. I jumped a little as the old man tapped me on the shoulder, unusually lightly.

"You might want to try that rack of books, signora" He gestured to a shelf filled with what appeared to be books in English. After a few short minutes of searching, I found the same book in English. The title was "Myths of Venice" I casually flicked open to the first page, and looked down the contents list. Children of Fire, Children of Water, Children of Life, Children of Earth, Children of Air, Calgani.

"Calgani?" I mused to myself. I looked up at the man and decided to ask.

"Erm, excuse me" I began, his eyes flicked up instantly, "Who were the Calgani?"

"Are, signora. The Calgani are the children of good and evil, beauty and ugly. The Calgani are the children of Angels and Demons."

Feeling sceptical inside, I nodded and decided to buy the book. I was dead bored and Jessie was going to be shopping for hours, and I needed something to entertain myself. This was probably the closest I would find to a good book I could understand. I turned and was surprized to see that the old man was back behind the counter. I walked over to it and put the book on the counter.

"Could I just get this one please," I said asked. He took the book from my hands and put it roughly into a paper bag.

"I saw you looking at the broach. Will you bring it over here please?" He asked, firmly but kindly. I didn't know what he meant to start with, but doing what I was told I went over and gently lifted it off the shelf. I brought it back to the old man and gave it to him. I gasped when I realised that he was wrapping it with tissue paper, and putting it in the bag with the book.

"Oh, it's beautiful but I can't afford it!" I stammered

"Look, business is slow now. I give it to you, as a present" He shrugged

I was speechless. I could only just manage to get out a "Thank you!"

"Its no problem" He smiled. I heard the chime on the door, and I turned around to see Jessie open the door and sidestep into the shop.

"OMG, Arabella. I found THE cutest dress! Omg you have to come see it!" She gushed. I laughed and turned around to say goodbye to the shopkeeper. He smiled at me and his eyes twinkled. I let Jess pull me out of the shop and we began walking down towards the fashion boutique, when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Jess heard it too, and we both shouted together "MUM!"

I flipped open my phone, and was ecstatic to see a text from my mother. It read

"hi girls, hope u have had a great day shopping! see u bac at the hotel in twenty mins? xx mommy" Jess sighed in relief, and so did I. Our parents often did this; they were global warming researchers and gave lectures about it. We were used to it, but that didn't mean we liked it. I showed the text to Jess, and she hooted with joy, and sprinted off towards the hotel, expecting me to follow. I did of course; I was just as exited to go to the hotel as she was. I checked my watch as I began to move, 4:20 pm. I looked up to Jess, and laughed as I realised she was already halfway down the street, knocking over old ladies as she went. I rolled my eyes and jogged after her.

"Fuck the world. WHERE ARE THEY?" Jess screamed. I wanted to scream louder than she was. It was 11:57, and there was no sign of our parents. We had been waiting for hours. I stood up and began pacing around the street, like I had done a hundred times this night. I walked a few steps towards the left, then stopped in my tracks. It was the blonde boy again. He was only about 20 meters away, close enough for me to see the finer details of his face. God, he was beautiful.

"Are you the Walkers?" He asked, in perfect English.

"Why do you want to know?" I asked, defensive. He grinned, then looked grim.

"And are you waiting for your parents?" He continued. He sighed wistfully and looked somewhat sad.

"Yes..." I was starting to get a little scared now.

"They aren't coming back."


End file.
